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The European Union and the Council of Europe support the tenth Montenegrin Pride Parade

"The Council of Europe stands with you, with the LGBTI community, today and every day, to block the hatred and share the love!" By these words, the former Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Montenegro, Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, expressed support to the Montenegrin Pride Parade and encouraged citizens to participate. The jubilee tenth Pride was organised on 8 October 2022 by the partner NGO Queer Montenegro under the slogan “No more BUT (Nema više ALI)”. According to organiser`s estimates, this Pride was one of the most attended and received much higher support from citizens than usual, from the day the information about the event went viral.

The European Union and the Council of Europe supported the production of five awareness raising videos as a part of the counter-narrative campaign 'Montenegro Pride-Share the Love', which also embeds into the larger regional campaign 'Block the hatred. Share the love' dedicated to fight against hate speech and promote diversity in Montenegro and in the Western Balkans Beneficiaries. In one of videos, civil society activists talk more about what has changed compared to the first Pride Parade. A brief analysis of the current situation in the area of LGBTI rights was provided in another video. Milos Knezevic, executive director of Queer Montenegro, tells his personal story and explains why the Pride Parade is important while public figures, such as singer Vladana Vucinic, speaks about importance of raising public awareness to fight for rights of LGBTI persons.

Nevertheless, the fight is not over. The LGBTI community in Montenegro still faces numerous challenges in their everyday lives. In the 2022 report on Montenegro, the European Commission emphasised that hate speech and homophobic incidents against LGBTI persons, including hate speech committed by the members of Parliament, represent a matter of grave concern.

The granting scheme on local initiatives against hate speech in Montenegro is conducted within the action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Montenegro”, part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.

Montenegro October 2022
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What is the goal?

  • To strengthen the capacity of national and local stakeholders to better address issues related to anti-discrimination, combating hate-speech and protecting rights of LGBTI persons in line with the standards and recommendations set by the Council of Europe – especially those of the European Commission on Racism and Intolerance (ECRI);
  • The action also aims at supporting Montenegro’s accession negotiations with the European Union in the field of fundamental rights.

Who benefits from the Action?

  • The citizens of Montenegro;
  • National and local authorities;
  • Education professionals;
  • Sport workers;
  • Civil society organisations engaged in promoting and protecting human rights

How will the Action work?

  • Through a combination of legal and strategic support to institutions; capacity building activities; peer-to-peer exchanges with regional and European partners; raise-awareness campaigns on selected anti-discrimination topics; support to CSOs and local authorities by small grant schemes, to enhance their capacities to tackle discrimination and reach out to the citizens.
  • It builds on the results of earlier co-operation programs in the field of anti-discrimination in the country, also co-funded by the Council of Europe and the European Union.

What do we expect to achieve?

  • To improve the record of implementation of anti-discrimination policies and legislation, at the central and local level (especially on protection of the rights of LGBTI persons, and on combating hate speech/hate crime);
  • Achieve better protection of the rights of citizens of Montenegro and build more tolerant society open to differences of its members, or similar. 

How much will it cost?

  • The total budget of the Action is 250.000 EUR
  • The budget allocated to the overall Horizontal Facility programme amounts to ca. 41 Million EUR (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).

How to get more information?

  • Council of Europe, website of the Anti-discrimination Department: https://www.coe.int/en/web/inclusion-and-antidiscrimination
  • Horizontal Facility website: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/horizontal-facility/home
  • Marija Simić, Horizontal Facility Communication Officer, [email protected], +381 63 601 337
  • Besnik Baka, Horizontal Facility Communication Officer, [email protected], +355 69 217 8430

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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